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I was intrigued by the cover of You Are My Only when I saw it on the Egmont table at BEA. I flipped it over to read the blurb and was immediately taken in. I am a crime buff- Law and Order addict, news junkie, you name it. I knew You Are My Only was a book for me.

This is a dual narrative. The chapters alternate between two seemingly independent stories and I was equally taken by both. It’s obvious that the stories will intersect at some point, but it’s unclear how that merger will come about. I kept thinking I had it figured out, but Kephart kept me on my toes.

Emmy Rane is married at nineteen and has a baby by twenty. She is trapped in a loveless marriage, feeling more useless as each day goes by. Her singular joy in life is Baby. While she struggles to be the best mom she can be, she does a great job. But everything changes the day that she leaves Baby in the yard for a few seconds while she runs into the house. When she returns to the yard, Baby is gone. All that remains is a single sock. She spends the rest of her life blaming herself for Baby’s kidnapping and what she assumes is her eventual death.

Sophie is fourteen years old and homeschooled by a somewhat eccentric mother. They move constantly, always trying to hide from what her mother refers to as “the No Good”. But their latest home is different. Sophie befriends the boy next door, gaining her first real friend. His elderly aunts treat her as their own and soon Sophie is sneaking out of the house to spend time with them, always worried that her mother will find out and whisk them away to a new home.

This isn’t an action-filled book, despite the blurb. It’s quiet, meditative. Both narrative arcs are engrossing. I found myself loving each story individually. Whenever the narrative changed I would be upset leaving that character behind. But then, within a few sentences, I was equally as engrossed in the alternate story. Kephart chooses her words carefully and the prose is gorgeous. I found myself savoring each descriptive sentence while fighting the urge to fly through the book to reach the conclusion.